


For Happiness!

by Yoko_Fujioka



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: (aka i may or may not have made a terrible mistake), Domestic Fluff, M/M, Mpreg, Slice of Life, for advice on how to raise your kids than any idiot with internet access, how do you write children 2k16, i have a weakness for dads calling their daughters -kun, i used parenting blogs as a reference because god knows nothing's more trustworthy, kazu swears their kids only copy their worst habits, kids are a handful, maybe?? - Freeform, shin-chan's cabbage head i don't hecking know, slightly more dialogue?, umm so where did the children come from?, wait didn't i use this tag already
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 03:30:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5896438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoko_Fujioka/pseuds/Yoko_Fujioka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Celebrating <a href="http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/calendar/february/setsubun.html"> setsubun</a> as a family, complete with crafts, bean-throwing, and arguments about if it's fair to hold a marker captive when you're not even using it.</p><p>Found a really cute <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygDRvEqYR3Y">folk song</a> about the holiday and was inspired to write a short 500 word drabble! {LOL where did I go wrong in my life} <b>Anyway I suggest you give the song a listen!<b></b></b></p>
            </blockquote>





	For Happiness!

**Author's Note:**

> So I subscribed to this youtuber hoping I'd get inspiration from one of the subtitled folk songs, but I never thought it'd turn out to be this much!! The initial premise came to me upon hearing the few few lines, but the ideas kept adding on, so I just went with the flow and am very proud of myself for writing such a large amount and having it edited and posted in 24 hours! (yaaay)
> 
> Well that, and I'm happy to be writing a happy family story again!! August seems kinda far away now, doesn't it? XD They have two kids again for some reason, but this time I used neither my main OCs or [Lita's](http://www.knbomegaverse.tumblr.com) OCs whom I borrowed for [modern family](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4479587)! Will I write these two girlies again?? Ummm well I said no last time and look what happened, so you're welcome to borrow them if you'd be willing to take matters into your own hands, because otherwise, who the heck knows!! XD
> 
> Extra special thanks to my beta [Shio](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Himitsu_Uragiri/pseuds/Himitsu_Uragiri) today because she just finished beta-ing that last fic for me when I dropped this off on skype without warning. She got it done in like an hour, though, a trooper like always, so thank you for being fast enough to make up for my terrible procrastination combined with weirdly strict deadlines LOL

It had been so frigid over the weekend that it seemed almost heavenly today, even if in reality it was just about as cold as it usually was this time of year. With the sun out and the air pleasant in the sort of way that made it seem even warmer, it was a perfect day for some spring cleaning, or at least what Kazunari could manage to get done. The glass door to the balcony had been left open all day to let the breeze in, futons draped over the railing and clotheslines and hangers laden with clothes and sheets hung in every available space. 

Standing out on the 16th floor, the honking and general city din was as loud as ever, but it seemed almost gentle today. Inside the apartment, on the other hand…

“Out with _oni_ , in with happiness!”

“With happiness!!”

His daughters, Akemi, five, and Chiharu, three, repeated the phrase energetically while throwing roasted soybeans around the room, greatly enjoying defeating the invisible foes threatening their happy home.

Walking back into their living room, Kazunari watched them with a proud sort of smile, plopping himself down beside the table, which usually sat in the middle of the room, within easy view of the TV, but had been pushed to the side for today. He really didn’t want their fun to be ruined with any tears or boo-boos caused by sharp corners and a current lack of depth perception.

 _‘They really are too cute’_ He thought as he watched them, assuring himself that it wasn’t just because they were his.

Chiharu especially didn’t have a lot of arm strength yet, so on top of struggling to run as fast as her sister, she couldn’t quite throw as far, either. Kazunari had taken her aside for a moment, first doing it himself to demonstrate and then leading her arm through the movements, but she couldn't quite get it, often just dropping them at her feet or flipping it less than a foot away. She looked so proud when she got it even that far, though, so Kazunari didn’t dare rain on her parade.

Akemi on the other had improved her aim a lot during the year, and Kazunari was hoping she’d join some sport when she got older, maybe even basketball. 

Sliding his elbows outwards on the tabletop as he rested his cheeks on his knuckles, Kazunari startled when something hit his arm, although he smiled when he realized it was the paper plate _oni_ mask the girls had made for him (with help and supervision, of course).They had made quite a fun game out of chasing and throwing the beans at him like he had done with his relatives when he was young. The three of them had given up on that, though, when Chiharu had a tantrum because she couldn’t quite hit him, even when he squatted down for her to try with a closer, fixed target instead.

Beside the mask sat several other crafts they had made, including red and blue colored toilet paper tubes with big teeth and silly faces drawn on. Or at least that was what they looked like on the reference sheet he had printed out from a craft website. 

The girls didn’t quite have the patience to complete one task before they went on to the next, not that he expected them to for a while, so he had given them a _setsubun_ -themed coloring book instead. In the end they just colored on construction paper like always, although Akemi had made a story using hers. 

“So there was a sad little oni living on the island with all his family and friends, but he was sad because whenever he tried to be friends with the humans, they just ran away scared!” She explained, pointing to a small picture in the top right corner where a red box had a little blue tear running from its black-scribbled eye as peach colored-boxes surrounded it. 

“Oh no! Did he try using his words?” Kazunari asked.

“He tried, but they wouldn’t stop and listen!” Akemi replied, visibly trying to think of how her friend might solve his problem when suddenly Chiharu reached over and snatched the blue marker right out of her hand.

“I was using that!!” The elder cried as if she had been physically wounded, looking truly outraged at her sister’s nerve.

“Weren’t!” Chiharu claimed, nodding towards Kazunari to wordlessly point out that she was telling a story, not drawing. 

“Well…I was going to!” Akemi argued. 

Kazunari’s instincts told him to break it up himself, tell them to get along because they had bought two sets of markers for a reason, but his mother had advised him they’d get along better if he let them solve their problems together. Sure, he and his sister had fought like cats and dogs for as long as they lived under their parent’s roof, but he couldn’t even say they had been truly angry with each other every time they bickered, and in the end they always had each other’s back at a second’s notice. 

It was hard to watch the two squabble, especially from the perspective of a parent, but, having internally agreed to take his mother's advice, he just lay the two markers parallel to each other in a place where he knew they'd notice them.

Eventually they noticed that they could both use a blue marker at the same time, and although they didn’t apologize, and still looked suspiciously at one another out of the corner of their eyes, there seemed to be at least some peace re-established.

“Oh, look, an _oni_ is here!!” He had proclaimed, pointing towards a random spot in the living room and watching happily as the two quickly gave up on coloring and evidently forgot they had even been arguing. 

“Where??” Chiharu asked excitedly, pushing herself up using the table as she looked around to see if she could spot any more.

“I got ‘em!” Akemi was immediately up and raring to go, grabbing her _masu_ cup as she went to throw large handful as far as she could.

“Me too!!” Chiharu added, throwing hers in the opposite direction with just as much fervor, not one to be shown up.

That was when Kazunari had gone out to the balcony to get some fresh air and whatever peace and quiet he could while also giving the girls more space to run around without the furniture in the way.

 

Now noticing that they were both starting to run low on beans, he called them back over to the table for the final part of the celebrations before they went to the shrine with Shin-chan-daddy at the end of the day.

Now technically there was no absolute need to go, since they had just thrown beans themselves, but the girls absolutely **loved** going there.  
They were already friends with the chief priest and at least one of the priestesses, and always talked their ears off about anything and everything they had seen or done lately. Thankfully most of the workers there were old enough to probably have grandchildren, or at least spawn of their own, so they were very sweet and patient with them, always looking genuinely interested in what the sisters had to say.

Oh, and what kid wouldn’t love to ring that loud bell? Kazunari knew they had seen every adults ring it just three times, but both seemed to always get overexcited as soon as they were lifted, ringing it as loud and long as they could before they were set back down.

Even the offering part seemed interesting to them, always watching with wide eyes as the loose change bounced along the grate with a clang before finally falling in with an even cooler slinky sound when it hit and slid down the pile along with the other coins.

Like a wishing fountain, they’d likely ask to put money in until their parents had nothing left, so he and Shin-chan were coming up with more and more creative ways to distract them. They were smart cookies, though, he could tell it might be hard to trick them like that in just a couple more years. 

“Alright, so we’re gonna eat a soybean for every birthday we’ve had so far, plus one more for this year to keep us from getting sick!” He explained, brushing the train of thought aside as he brought up another two _masu_ of beans that he had separated so they wouldn’t get used on accident.

Taking beans out one by one in front of just Chiharu first, he hummed the melody of the counting song they’d been learning, trying to get her to tell him how it went. Admittedly she wasn’t going to learn if he didn’t let her think for herself and struggle for the answer, but he was weak to her frustrated thinking face and often gave her the answer too quickly, which she always repeated like she had known all along.

He took the beans out individually for Akemi, too, but he asked her questions as he went, like what the numbers looked like or what the word was in English. (she was doing very well with her second language so far, in his humble opinion).

Trying to include Chiharu was a bit impossible; the age gap seeming a lot wider than it was when it came to schoolwork. He still tried, but when the three-year old started getting visibly discouraged he tried to get the game done a bit faster just to be done with it.

“Papa fifteen!” Chiharu stated once they had gotten their shares, looking proud of herself for knowing such a high number, and Kazunari tried his best not to laugh while he ruffled her hair. He had been working with kids for years now, had heard much smaller numbers been proclaimed “old”, but it still cracked him up to this day, even more so when they looked so sure of themselves.

Accepting the _masu_ when Akemi handed it to him, he grabbed a vague amount and was just going to throw it his mouth mindlessly.

“Whoa! Papa, how did you count so high?” Akemi seemed seriously impressed, eyebrows nearly disappearing into the bangs cut evenly across her forehead by Shin-chan-daddy.

“So fast!” Chiharu added, jumping up and down with the table as leverage until Kazunari managed to calm her down.

He hadn’t expected them to be paying attention to him, honestly. He just grabbed a handful and counted every other one or so to see if it was about the right number, but, well, if he could make it encouraging...

“Just wait and see, in a couple of years you’ll be doing it like this, too! School’s really amazing like that!!” He promised cheerily, catching Chiharu’s nose and fluttering it until she squealed at him to stop, Akemi laughing so hard she had to hold her stomach.

“Now eat your soybeans and grow up to be even bigger and taller than your daddy!” He encouraged them once they had calmed down to breathing wheezily, but his daughters looked at him skeptically

At least Akemi gave him the benefit of the doubt and ate them using two fingers, but beside her, Chiharu just pushed herself away from the table using her hands and turned up her nose.

_‘Of course nothing can go completely smoothly’ _Kazunari sighed under his breath a little, but made sure not to show it on his face, smiling gently instead.__

__“What’s wrong with them?” He tried asking, despite knowing perfectly well she hadn’t even tasted them before she had decided she didn’t like them._ _

__“I hate beans!” she declared unhappily, puffing out a small amount of air as her cheeks filled and her arms crossed her chest._ _

__And suddenly Kazunari was reminded of Shintarō, refusing to eat natto when Kazunari had found it on sale and tried to camouflage them between the other breakfast foods so the greenette wouldn't notice it._ _

__"Shin-chan you idiot, I told you the kids were going to watch and copy you!" He let out a muffled groan, positive the kids couldn’t hear it._ _

__“Honey, even Shin-chan-daddy eats his soybeans!” He tried to do the reverse with her, surprised when her knee-jerk reaction was to laugh._ _

__“Pfffft, no he doesn’t!” She laughed as if it was so obvious he would never do such a thing, Akemi laughing behind her hand as well although Kazunari got the feeling that was because she knew exactly what he was trying to do._ _

___'Fine! He caused the problem, he’s gonna fix it! God knows if she’ll listen to anyone except for him, anyway!’_ He wasn’t able to keep his sighs quiet this time, although thankfully they were likely entirely concealed by the still ringing laughter._ _

__The sound of their laughter suddenly changed, and Kazunari looked back to find Chiharu now flicking her beans across the tabletop, Akemi taking similar delight in watching them spin like ufos._ _

__Scooching to another side of the table whenever a kernel flew too far out of their reach, both of them merely picked new ones out when one fell on the floor, rather than using it or any of the other ones sitting there at the moment._ _

___‘You know, I wonder if Shin-chan would believe me if I told him it was his turn to vacuum.’_ Kazunari thought darkly as he surveyed what an absolute mess the room had become. He sure hoped soybeans weren’t enough to jam up the machine._ _

__The girls, totally oblivious, began to compete to see who could make theirs fly the farthest, sitting (or half-standing, really) side by side and yelling excitedly as they watched the little beans “run” across the tabletop._ _

__

__“I’m home” Shintarō called suddenly, as Kazunari hadn’t even heard him come in, not that it was anything new._ _

__“Welcome b-” He began only to be cut off by their children’s simultaneous battle cries, grabbing a cup each as they dashed at their father while also throwing as many beans as they could._ _

__Shintarō really was such a good sport, though, not needing context or time to process before he dropped down to the ground with a pained groan. He had loosened his tie a bit as he had opened the door, but it was still kind of funny, to see such formal clothing rolling around on the hardwood. The girls were lying on the greenette’s chest and ribs, and when Shintarō began rolling back and forth it quickly turned into a rodeo, kids laughing loudly as they clutched onto anything they could in order to keep hold of him._ _

__“Look, I brought something to make extra sure we’ll have happiness this year.” Shintarō startled, having completely forgotten because of the distraction. Reaching aside into his pea coat pocket, he pulled out a _maneki neko_ , aware that it wasn't exactly traditional to the holiday, but the point got across._ _

__It was red in color, to protect the children from illness or evil, with both of its paws raised to invite the gods, perhaps, to protect their home. That would explain why his husband was a little later than usual coming home today, of course he’d spend quite a long time both thinking about and finding the perfect charm for their nest._ _

___‘I’ll have to try to find some way to display it at the doorway without it being knocked over’_ Kazunari reflected. They didn’t have anything that could fit the bill at the moment, but Shintarō had been talking about sprucing up the _genkan _a bit to make it more inviting, while Kazunari just hoped they’d be able to find something they agreed on.___ _

____“Kitty!!” was all Chiharu noticed about it._ _ _ _

____“It’s so cute, and it’s my favorite color!” Akemi added happily, as if her favorite color didn’t change every other week. Hopefully Chiharu wouldn’t take this as favoritism and raise a fuss._ _ _ _

____Shintarō wanted to do the best he could, but Kazunari really wondered if it was worth picking out such a specific one. They couldn’t have pets in the apartment, but both girls were absolutely obsessed with cats, and had quite the collection of toys and stuffed animals to prove it, so the animal it happened to be was all they noticed._ _ _ _

____He supposed they could try to manage to keep it in one piece, or, more realistically, if the pieces were large and cleanly slashed, he could glue them back together to look good as new. Maybe one day the kids would come back to visit from college or their new hometowns and see the worn old statue still sitting on a shelf somewhere, and suddenly they would realize what it had always meant to them._ _ _ _

____The rest of his family now joined him at the table and while in the background everyone talked about cats and why the statue looked funny, Kazunari realized that while he didn’t quite want to be rid of the little rascals yet, he did look forward to living in a quiet little house somewhere with the love of his life, looking back at what he’s accomplished._ _ _ _

____“Papa, we’re out of beans!!” Akemi suddenly panicked, and it was her voice, without registering the words, that made Kazunari jolt to attention like everything he knew and loved was at stake. It took him a second of obvious gear-grinding for his ears to catch up,but while his shoulders visibly relaxed, he still looked over in concern._ _ _ _

____“Sick?” Chiharu asked sadly, looking into one of the _masu _and even shaking it to make absolutely sure there weren’t any left in there, although she seemed to be making a point of not looking at the floor or anywhere else in the room that wasn’t the tabletop.___ _ _ _

______Despite being a pain to clean (now that he was actually the one who had to do it, rather than waking up in the morning to find the laundry done and food already made, man he missed the good old days), Kazunari would have never skipped out on letting his kids have fun like this. Both of them really loved this time of year, even though this was one of the first times Chiharu was old enough to be totally aware of what was going on, and he was never going to make them feel bad for losing themselves in having a good time._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Never fear, super dad is here!” He stood up and pointed a thumb at himself triumphantly, deflating however when the word “dad” made both girls look at Shintarō expectantly._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I still have some more left over, so I’ll just warm them and then Shin-chan and Chi-kun can eat them to stay healthy alll year~!” He guaranteed, smiling at them as he walked to the kitchen but subtly patting Shintarō as he passed to let him know he was tapping out for the moment to could take a break._ _ _ _ _ _

______Maybe he shouldn’t have worried about the beans so much, the kids forgetting about all the panic the moment he left, although that was mostly because they got caught up in the excitement of showing their father the crafts and drawings they had made while he was gone._ _ _ _ _ _

______Allowing himself a breather really was important, though, so he was glad he wasn’t raising them both on his own, because sometimes he really needed to take a step back in order to be the good, loving, patient parent he had feared he might not be able to become._ _ _ _ _ _

______He kind of wanted to take a breath of fresh air, but even just passing by might pull him back into the party, so he stayed in the kitchen, completely silent, for a minute or two. The oven was set at a low temperature, not making much noise, and he just listened. It felt strange, but with the hallway and two doors in between them, the sound of his family was distant, almost like it was separate from his flat. And then he wondered, what would his life be like if he really was living on his own, and that sound was just some loud kids in the apartment next to his?_ _ _ _ _ _

______Shintarō’s familiar laughter pulled him back in, and it was like a sudden reminder; he couldn’t possibly claim these three were strangers, he knew them almost as well as he knew himself, from the things spoken to the smallest little habits They were his, absolutely no-one else in the world had a family exactly like this, and they were his to have and to hold for as long as they all would live._ _ _ _ _ _

______Turning the temperature just high enough to finish browning the soybeans, Kazunari poured them into an ordinary bowl, no longer caring quite so much for the ceremony, and rejoined his family as quickly as he could make his legs move._ _ _ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I made Chiharu too bratty and Akemi not bratty enough?? Like rather than going back and forth between them, I just pushed anything that sounded like a tantrum on the younger sister because it seemed childish for a five year old, but they're still toddlers so maybe she seems unrealistic (as if it's not already obvious I don't know how either age would act LOL).
> 
> It's funny because this started out as a small drabble intended only for my [tumblr](http://www.yokofujioka.tumblr.com) followers because I want to get into the habit of writing more steadily and I always seem to be getting small ideas that I can't do too much more with. I ended up wanting to show it off, it hasn't quite overtaken [but baby it's cold outside](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5537216) as my best fic, but hopefully it won't be too long before I improve again ;D
> 
> Also I wanted to ask if the slight time jumble made sense to everybody? We start out with Kazu on the balcony, then go back to what he did before he went out there, and then splice to where he comes back in and realizes they're starting to run out of beans. Proposing they do something else is the next action, and the story continues in a straight line from that point. 
> 
> I'd really really love to hear what you guys think of this, I'm getting more comments than I used to but you always make my day with your thoughts!!! .｡*ﾟ+.*.｡(❁´◡`❁)｡.｡:+*


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